Dual-core Samsung Galaxy S III landing on 5 U.S. carriers in June

Coming to five carriers, starting at $200, Samsung is pushing its flagship phone hard.

(Credit: Jessica Dolcourt/CNET)

Samsung means business. The consumer electronics giant has just announced sales of itsSamsung Galaxy S III flagship Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich smartphone for five U.S. carriers starting in June.

Verizon, AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, and U.S. Cellular will all receive variations of the Galaxy S III this month, but Samsung isn't sharing the exact pricing and release date for each carrier just yet. What we do know is that $200 is the lowest price of the bunch.

What's incredibly interesting (and what CNET had predicted) is that the U.S.-based version, like its HTC One X rival, will carry a 1.5 GHz dual core Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 processor as opposed to the 1.4GHz quad-core Samsung Exynos processor that's used in the global release.

If you're tempted to get huffy over your quad-core loss, keep in mind that Qualcomm's dual-core chip is plenty fast, and that quad-core performance claims aren't always what they seem.The "downgrade" is likely due to a current incompatibility between the quad-core chip and LTE data networks, just as with the HTC One X, which forewent the Nvidia Tegra 3 processor that was used in the global version of its hero device.

The Galaxy S III is a slim handset with a 4.8-inch HD Super AMOLED display. It supports 4G LTE and HSPA+ 42 speeds, has an 8-megapixel camera (hands on) with 1080p HD video capture and playback, and a bevy of software features to complement and enhance Android's Ice Cream Sandwich operating system.

Samsung has also given the Galaxy S III 2GB of RAM and a very large, removable 2100mAh battery. There will be support for 16GB or 32GB of expandable memory, depending on the carrier, it seems.

Another nice touch, the Galaxy S III is topped with Gorilla Glass 2.0, a stronger, thinner type of the premium glass brand that Corning, Gorilla Glass' maker, unveiled this past January at CES.